Andor Mészáros

Andor Mészáros (1 September 1900 in Budapest, Hungary – 1 May 1972 in South Melbourne, City of Port Phillip, Australia) was a Hungarian-Australian architect, sculptor, and medallist.

Life and Career

Andor Mészáros was the son of lawyer Alexander Mészáros and his wife, sculptor Bertha née Grünsberg. He attended high school in Budapest and served in the Hungarian cavalry in 1918, but did not see action due to the end of the First World War. From 1919 to 1924, he studied mechanical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology, then sculpture at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1924 to 1925 – studying under Henri Bouchard, Paul Landowski, and in the studio of József Csáky – and finally architecture at the Technical University of Budapest until 1927. After two years of training as a draughtsman with architects Móric Pogány and as a civil engineer with József Vágó, he was licensed by the Hungarian Chamber of Architects (Magyar Építész Kamara) and began working as an architect. He collaborated closely with sculptor and medallist Eduard "Ede" Telcs, for whom he developed several architectural designs for fountains. In 1932, he opened his own office.

Christ Accepts His Cross, All Saints Anglican Church in Brisbane

Replica of the Shakespeare statue in Budapest

Andor Mészáros married Erzsébet Back (also Elizabeth Bakk) on December 1st, 1932, in Budapest, and their first son, Daniel, was born in 1935. In 1939, due to the impending war, he emigrated to Australia and arrived in Melbourne on June 21st, 1939. He was considered an Enemy Alien and worked for a year in the architectural offices of J. V. T. Ward and Marsh & Michaelson. In 1940, his wife followed him to Melbourne with their son. With the support of friends such as zoologist Wilfred Eade Agar and physician Herbert Schlink, Andor Mészáros was able to pursue his artistic career. His early works include three stone figures – Maternity (1944), The Surgeon (1945), and King George V. (1946) – which he created for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. In 1945, he illustrated Frederick Oswald Barnett's book I Hear the Tramp of Millions. In 1949, he spent several months in England working on the altarpiece for the St. Anselm Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral and completed the medallions of the Canterbury Series depicting the Stations of the Cross.

From the 1950s onwards, he undertook several major commissions in Australia, including The Resurrection (1954), a sandstone figure as an altarpiece for the chapel of the Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore School); a Triumphal Cross for St Peter’s Cathedral in Adelaide in 1955; a Shakespeare statue for the city of Ballarat in 1960; the bronze figure Christ Accepts His Cross for the All Saints Anglican Church in Brisbane in 1962; and a group of figures for the Supreme Court in Darwin in 1964, which sparked some controversy.

In between his sculptural commissions, he designed over 1000 medals, including an honorary medal for the Victorian Artists Society in 1947, the Olympic Games Participants’ Medal in 1956, the Pattern Swan Dollar (also known as the Goose Dollar) in 1967, and The Vietnam Medal for Australian and New Zealand soldiers in the Vietnam War in 1968. He designed the inaugural ANZAAS Medal for the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science in 1965. He also created portrait medals of figures such as David Rivett (c. 1966), Howard Florey (1963), and Robert Menzies (1969). In 1951, he won the top prize at the International Medal Exhibition in Madrid, and in 1964, he received a Purchase Prize at the International Medal Competition in Arezzo, Italy. He was a member of the International Federation of Medallists and the Amici Della Medaglia in Italy.

Andor Mészáros passed away on May 1st, 1972, in South Melbourne and was cremated. A portrait of Andor Mészáros painted in 1961 by L. Scott Pendlebury is in the possession of the family.

Literature

• Sharples, John P.; Museum of Victoria, eds. (1990). Medals as art: Australia and the Meszaros tradition; [exhibition catalogue]. Melbourne. ISBN 978-0-7241-9732-3.

External links

• Andor Mészáros, Medal Artist (1900–1972) at collections.museumvictoria.com.au

• Ritchie, John Douglas; Langmore, Diane (2000). Australian dictionary of biography. Carlton (Va.): Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-522-84843-4.

• Kelman Semmens: Mészáros, Andor (1900–1972)

• Semmens, Kelman, "Andor Mészáros (1900–1972)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2024-03-29